Physical keyboard with iPad pro and remote dekstop apps (Windows) - CTRL key not working as expected

Hi, I have been searching around the last few days to find an answer for this but it seems like this might be no answer ? Just a bug?


I have an ipad pro m4 with iPad OS 18.3.2.


When I connect a keyboard to my Ipad (I've tried several different) and then connect the Ipad to a windows machine with Microsoft remote desktop app for example, the CTRL key is not forwarded to windows correctly.


For example "CTRL + S" or any combination with CTRL is completely fine, but for example just pressing CTRL does not work.. it sends nothing to the remote desktop.


With a keylogger in Windows (on the remote desktop machine) I've figured out that if i repeatedly press ctrl over and over quickly it will in the end send a VK_PACKET "keycode 231" (hey key: 0xE7).. which is just a random unicode-character.. don't know which..


If i press a mouse-button at the same time as i press CTRL, it will send a normal CTRL as expected which makes this even stranger.. So in an app where CTRL is a shortkey that will never work on its own, but if you press for example mouse3 (scrollwheel) and ctrl at the same time it will push through both and register a ctrl click.


So as long as ctrl is combined with anything, mouse or keyboard related, it will work.. but never alone..


Is there way to fix this? Is it possible to remap / modify what keycodes the Ipad send to apps in any way? Or how the CTRL key is handled?


How would I even start to work on this? I figured a simple re-map in windows would solve this but since when ctrl is pressed alone it sends nothing to the app I don't even know where to start..


(This is by the way also true for azure desktop and teamviewer from what i gather online, but I have not tried that myself.. thats why I'm posting about it here and not at microsoft support, where others have posted about this before without success)


Thanks!

iPad Pro, iPadOS 18

Posted on Apr 6, 2025 8:24 AM

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Posted on Apr 24, 2025 12:32 PM

After some more digging I found out this is just some thing iPadOS do strange so several apps struggle with it but RDM which is another Remote Desktop app have this pretty much solved already and after talking with their support they will have the last small issue with it fixes by next update so would suggest anyone that struggle with this to try their free RDP app called RDM.. I guess this thread can be closed because it’s actually not a iPad issue after all.. or well I guess it depends on how you define it , but it can be solved by app developers ;)


br

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 24, 2025 12:32 PM in response to alexz_er

After some more digging I found out this is just some thing iPadOS do strange so several apps struggle with it but RDM which is another Remote Desktop app have this pretty much solved already and after talking with their support they will have the last small issue with it fixes by next update so would suggest anyone that struggle with this to try their free RDP app called RDM.. I guess this thread can be closed because it’s actually not a iPad issue after all.. or well I guess it depends on how you define it , but it can be solved by app developers ;)


br

Apr 6, 2025 3:07 PM in response to alexz_er

Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond! :)


I did update and it didn’t help, but I also did some more digging.. Since previously that other apps had this issue was just something I read i decided to actually try it.. I have now downloaded another remote desktop app and it have a variations of the same problem.


Windows app (previously Remote Desktop - both left and right ctrl not working, but does work when combined with other «actions»)

Remote Desktop manager (left ctrl working! But right ctrl never working.. Not even when combined with other actions).


I also saw posts going back to like 2020 about this issue, so its not something new.

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Physical keyboard with iPad pro and remote dekstop apps (Windows) - CTRL key not working as expected

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